1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printed antennas disposed on substrates, and particularly to a printed antenna with a hollow portion, the printed antenna being disposed on a substrate in a wireless local area network (WLAN) or 802.16 compatible device.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication standards have been developed to control wireless communications over widely-spaced frequency bands. An example is the 802.16 standard of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) that concerns wireless communication in wireless area networks. Commonly referred to as WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability For Microwave Access), this standard is intended to facilitate wireless networks of wide communication services. Presently, under the IEEE 802.16 standard, WiMAX communication devices are restricted to intentional operation between 2.3 and 3.6 GHz.
In recent years, more attention has been paid on developments of small-sized wireless communication devices, such as mobile phones, wireless cards, and access points, for convenient portability. An antenna, as one of the key elements of the wireless communication devices, has to be miniaturized accordingly. Biconical antennas are often used as WiMAX antennas to achieve the widely-spaced frequency bands, but the profile of the conventional WiMAX antennas is still large. Therefore, what is needed is a smaller more compact WiMAX antenna.